Court Bulletin

WOODSTOCK, ON - Automobile manufacturer Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada Inc. has pleaded guilty and has been fined $65,000 after a worker who was caught in a moving production line suffered injuries that included arm fractures.

On October 1, 2013, a worker at the company's assembly plant at 1717 Dundas Street in Woodstock was employed on an instrument panel line, performing assembly-related tasks along a chain-driven conveyor. The worker noticed part of the production line, called automated guided vehicles, was running in slow mode rather than at the normal production mode. This part of the production line requires a re-set to get back into production mode.

Hoping to prevent stalling or a shut-down, the worker reached under the line to press the re-set button while the line was still in operation. In doing so, one of the worker's arms became trapped between the moving line and the stationary power platform. The worker's arm was fractured in multiple places and required surgery.

By law, an employer must ensure that a machine is stopped when it is being adjusted or repaired if motion of the machine may endanger a worker. Toyota pleaded guilty to failing, as an employer, to ensure that the measures and procedures prescribed by the Occupational Health and Safety Act were carried out.

Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada was fined $65,000 by Justice of the Peace Michael A. Cuthbertson in Provincial Offences Court in Woodstock. In addition to the fine, the court imposed a 25-per-cent victim fine surcharge as required by the Provincial Offences Act. The surcharge is credited to a special provincial government fund to assist victims of crime.